


Cultural Exchanges

by Bi_lithiumcrystals



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Episode: s05e05 Disaster, Episode: s05e14 Conundrum, F/F, First Kiss, Getting Together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24265147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bi_lithiumcrystals/pseuds/Bi_lithiumcrystals
Summary: Deanna slowly forms a friendship with Ensign Ro and finds herself fascinated by Bajoran culture- or perhaps, one Bajoran in particular
Relationships: Ro Laren/Deanna Troi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I've finally published my first Star Trek fic, for which my account is named and my avatar is for! Finally!
> 
> This chapter takes place the evening following the events of the episode Disaster. I'm sure what I've written for both Bajoran and Betazoid culture contradicts parts of Beta canon, but I haven't read any of the books or comics.

Deanna walked to the door of her quarters, attempting to figure out who it was that she was feeling on the other side. Whoever it was, they were clearly debating whether or not to ring the chime to her quarters, nervous energy radiating from them. Respecting their wishes, Deanna opted to leave the door closed, turning to lean against the wall, puzzling over the person's emotions.

Given the events that had occurred across the ship earlier that day, it could easily be any crew member feeling so agitated, but the fact that they were at the door to her quarters rather than her office, as well as the undercurrent of admiration she felt seemed to go against the idea of a crewman in need of counseling. Particularly odd was the fact that Deanna had become accustomed enough to the way her friends and the senior staff's emotions felt to recognize them, and the presence on the other side of the door was only vaguely familiar.

She had just begun to debate leaving it alone until the person decided if they wanted to face her or not when she felt a sudden surge of resolve. A moment later, the door chimed. She pushed off the wall and straightened her appearance before opening the door.

"Ensign Ro," she said, surprise clear on her face before she schooled her expression in response to the wave of apprehension from Ro. "What a surprise. Would you like to come in?" She stepped back, opening the way into her quarters.

Ro seemed taken aback by the invitation, and it did not escape Deanna's notice that her confusion was the first emotion she had outwardly shown. Deanna suspected that without her empathy, she would be very much in the dark on Ro's anxiety- which seemed to be the way she liked it.

Ro shook her head slightly, "You don't have to invite me in, Counselor. I just wanted to commend the way you handled the quantum filament today. You were clearly nervous, but you held your ground and saved lives where I would have sacrificed them."

That would explain the admiration Deanna was sensing, but she also noticed the guilt rising at the end of the statement. She suspected this may have more to do with Ro admonishing herself than complimenting Deanna.

She smiled at Ro. "Well, thank you, but as I said earlier, I very easily could have been wrong- then it would have been your plan saving people." She paused for a moment before adding, "Are you sure you don't want to come in?"

Ro's eyes flicked back and forth as she looked into the room, hesitating for a moment before nodding and slowly stepping forward.

Deanna followed her into the room, moving to the replicator as Ro hovered before gingerly sitting on the couch. "Hot chocolate," she said to the replicator and then turned to her new companion. "Would you like one?"

Ro shook her head. As Deanna made her way over to the opposite end of the couch with her drink, Ro said "I tend to avoid sweet things."

"Really?" Deanna raised her eyebrow. "I can't imagine living without chocolate." She had felt the complicated swell of emotions within Ro at the confession, but figured it was best to leave it to her whether or not they continued that conversation.

"If you like sweet drinks, you should try Jumja Tea," Ro offered. "The actual sap it's made from isn't very good for you, but replicated versions fix that."

Deanna took a sip of her hot chocolate and hummed. "Is that a Bajoran variety?" she asked, taking note of how Ro tensed slightly at the question despite having begun to relax before that.

She nodded. "Like I said, not very good for you, but the trees are abundant and have several uses."

At that, Deanna began to wonder if Ro associated sweets with the food scarcity of her childhood. "Hmm, well, if you ever get curious enough to try chocolate, I would recommend a Lareannan variety. It tastes vaguely like Delavian dark chocolate, but is quite spicy; it's a very interesting flavor combination."

Ro tilted her head to the side and Deanna felt a spike of suspicion. "Have you been looking up Bajoran foods?"

"No," Deanna clarified, a bit taken aback. "Why?"

Ro looked into her eyes for a moment, seemingly trying to guess Deanna's motives in the conversation. Eventually, she confessed, "Traditional Bajoran food is typically very spicy."

Ah, Deanna thought, piecing it together. Ro had likely learned to distrust people actively attempting to connect with her. She waved her hand.

"No, it's just the chocolate that I like that varies from Earth flavors the most. But I'd love to hear more about Bajoran food; Betazoid cuisine can also be quite hot. Some dishes are too spicy for most humans." Deanna enjoyed spices herself but lacked the tolerance of most Betazoids, a fact which had gotten her teased slightly for her human heritage as a child.

"I didn't know that about Betazed. You'll have to try a hasperat soufflé sometime," Ro offered with a small smile, her nerves settling.

"Hmm, Betazoids revel in sensuality," Deanna replied, sipping her hot chocolate before Ro's emotions spiked. Surprise, curiosity, and the barest hint of arousal flooded Deanna's senses as she realized the implications of that sentence out of cultural context. She raised a hand in apology, "What I mean is, Betazoid culture tends to push things to the extreme. Cuisine, fashion, everything has to be as strong and wild as you can make it. My mother says that when the mind is so easily explored, it's fun to test the boundaries of the body."

Ro quirked an eyebrow and smiled. "Well, Betazoid culture sounds very interesting."

They sat in silence as Deanna finished her drink, but she could feel Ro's contentment and see the smile still on her face. When Deanna eventually set her cup down, Ro stood. "It was nice speaking with you Counselor, but I should get going."

Deanna stood as well, smiling back at her. "You know," she teased, "I think I actually believe you thought it was nice."

Ro smiled at her again, and tucked her hair behind her right ear. "Yes well, good evening, Counselor."

"Same to you, Ensign," Deanna replied with a small bow of the head as Ro walked out of her quarters.

Well. That had certainly been an interesting interaction.


	2. Chapter 2

"Guess we're stuck here," Ro sighed as she dropped back against the cave wall, sliding down it until she was sitting with her knees up and her arms crossed.

"Just until the storm passes," Deanna tried to sound confident as she reassured her. "The Enterprise will beam us back as soon as they can."

She had resolved to further her command ability after the incident with the quantum filament three weeks ago, and as such, had asked Captain Picard if she could be involved in more away missions, and in command of some. The two missions she had been on since then had gone smoothly, but Beverly had been on both of them, and Will on one. This was her first mission for which she was the highest ranking officer. It was a simple survey mission, observing the early lifeforms on an M-class planet in a binary system. None showed sentience, at least as far as Deanna could sense and their exobiologist, Lieutenant Kezi, could tell, but they were nonetheless quite interesting.

They had been told during their mission briefing that a sandstorm would be forming in the desert they were in, but were assured they would be beamed out before it became an issue. However, an unexpected ion storm caused the transports to take longer and necessitated that they beam out one at a time. Every member of the away team beside herself and Ensign Ro had been returned to the Enterprise before the ion storm worsened and the nearing sandstorm caused additional interference, leaving them stranded. Deanna had guided them to a cave she had noticed earlier, but now they had nothing to do but wait.

She could feel apprehension building in Ro, but was uncertain whether it was caused by their stranded status or the fact that she was now in a situation where she had nothing to do but talk.

"In case we do end up here longer than expected though, I recommend we prepare. I believe you have more survival training that I do, Ensign. Do you have suggestions?" She crossed her own arms as well, mirroring Ro as she looked down to her.

Ro raised an eyebrow at her. She sighed and waved a hand as she explained, "It's unlikely the storm will last long enough to leave us stranded, but caves like this do sometimes have water deeper in. We can go look for some if you want, but until we empty the water we already have in our canteens, we won't have a container to boil it with a phaser. And going deeper into the cave would make our comm signals harder to locate. 

"We're less likely to find safe food in here, but we can go longer without that anyway. Even if something happens to the Enterprise, unless this planet has some really weird weather, we'll be able to wait out the storm and collect some of the cactus fruit Ishikawa found. You don't have to worry about anything right now, Counselor."

"Nor do you," Deanna said, quirking an eyebrow.

Ro stared up at her. "Did you just try to trick me into comforting myself?" Deanna simply raised her other eyebrow and smiled. Ro scoffed, but formed her own small smile. "I'm not worried, just annoyed."

Deanna turned and sat down next to her. "You're also correct. We'll give the Enterprise some time, and then look for supplies if we need to."

Ro was quiet for a moment before she knocked her shoulder against Deanna's. "You're getting better at this, y'know. You don't seem half as panicked as you were last time you were in command."

"Why, thank you," Deanna laughed. "And you don't seem half as argumentative."

Ro rolled her eyes. Deanna could feel that she was slowly easing the strength with which she held up the walls around her and was grateful that Deanna was one of the few people she did that for. They hadn't spent much time together since the quantum filament, but they had been far friendlier in the interactions they did have.

"That's not easy for you, is it? Not lashing out at every perceived challenge?" she asked sympathetically.

Ro visibly tensed next to her and Deanna felt those walls be quickly reinforced. "Are you psychoanalyzing me or listening to my emotions?" she asked, her voice cold and accusatory. 

"Both," Deanna turned toward her. "For what it's worth though, listening isn't really an active choice for me. I don't have as much control as a full Betazoid would, so it is very much like listening- the noise will always be there and while I can try to tune it out, I can't just shut my eyes and turn it off completely. But if it makes you uncomfortable, I can do my best to ignore it, and I can definitely stop psychoanalyzing you."

Ro turned her body to face Deanna and stared into her eyes for a long moment, and Deanna tried not to pay attention to the emotions she was sorting through. Eventually, Ro sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "At least you seem honest."

Deanna cocked her head to the side. "What do you mean?" Ro shot her a sardonic look, and Deanna raised her hand in surrender. "Not psychoanalyzing, just making conversation."

Ro tilted her head back, staring toward the ceiling of the cave. She was silent for long enough that Deanna believed she had no interest in responding. She adjusted herself to lean back as well, resigned to the silence when Ro spoke.

"The Cardassians- or really anyone trying to control you, I guess, since a lot of people in Starfleet and some of the more intense Vedeks do it too- they do their best to figure out what you're thinking so they'll know exactly how to manipulate you, get you to follow their rules. But when you call them out on it, they try to bullshit you that they really are just interested in you for whatever reason. Most of us have learned not to trust people trying to be our friend. Your empathy- in both senses of the word- sets me off because of that. But, at least you seem to be actually honest- no fake reason why you're interested in me, just an alien who can't turn her brain off." She had refused eye contact since Deanna had asked the question, had turned back toward her during her last sentence.

"But you're friends with Guinan?" Deanna tried to prompt her further.

Ro smiled. "Yeah, well, she's weird. In a good way. Something about her just makes you trust her- which should honestly make me more suspicious, but she's just argumentative enough that I believe she's not faking trying to get to know me."

"So fighting you is the way to get you to trust?"

She gave a small laugh. "Yeah, I guess. I'm not sure if it's just a me thing or a Bajoran thing, but typically, if you're being rude by human standards then you are actually saying what you think. I genuinely trust that Commander Riker has a low opinion of me for example. Being respectful though? How am I supposed to know whether you're being genuine, just following social rules, or something else?"

"Well, I will make an attempt to be more direct with you in the future then. If it helps though, lying for any reason, but especially social graces is definitely a learned skill for me; I'm not particularly great at it."

Ro raised her eyebrows. "You have to be polite to your patients."

Deanna smiled, "Yes, and that's the main reason I've tried as hard as I have to learn to keep a straight face. But growing up surrounded by telepaths and empaths who don't have any sense of boundaries? Until I left Betazed, I didn't think I'd ever get to experience the privacy of my own thoughts, so I didn't learn how to mask them until I was much older."

"Sounds like a fun childhood," Ro teased. "But you're right- a bad liar for a friend probably would help with paranoia."

Deanna gave a soft smile. "I wouldn't call it paranoia as much as a trauma response."

"Ugh," Ro groaned, leaning into Deanna's shoulder to hide her face. "I thought we said no psychoanalyzing."

"Alright," Deanna laughed, suddenly much more fixated on determining if the soft, light feeling that had flared up when Ro leaned on her was a result of her own projection. As much as she longed for the answer though, concentrating too much on the source would break Ro's wishes. They sat in silence for several more minutes with Deanna resolutely not focusing on the emotions between them, when their commbadges finally sounded.

It was staticky, but quickly clearing up, and directing them to move into a more open space with less transporter interference. The two women stood and made their way out of the cave to be transported. The captain was proud of Deanna's command of the situation, she could clearly sense upon rematerializing, but she found her mind much more preoccupied with the other woman than the largely successful away mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know it's canon that all Betazoids aside from the one who tells Data it's not a sin to be different can control whether they listen to people or not, but it's my fic and I get to choose which parts of canon to apply


End file.
